Forum: Site Announcements

But, this option is something that gives the authors the absolute freedom and also the responsibility how to handle their stories. Some may use it and periodically switch it off for a week to give their fans a chance to download hidden works.

Again, it's all up to individual authors whether to use this and how.

Actually, I'm not crazy about it myself (as it makes the stories inaccessible to many SOL readers), though now I'm considering it for my older stories so they don't keep 'popping up' whenever someone Googles one of my older books (i.e. 'read it for free by visiting the site you've never heard of, rather than buying it').

At least that way, if I periodically offer 'free reads', I'll get a bunch of reads (and possibly comments), rather than just a few over several months/years.

I wonder whether thieves tend to be Premier members. It seems to me to be quite a lot of work to scrape a story a chapter at a time then reassemble it. And for someone like Hooriya Ahmed to do it 20 or 30 times...

AJ

I wonder whether thieves tend to be Premier members.

Haven't seen any of the Premier protected stories turn up on the stolen lists. Maybe they use one of the options to download as an e-pub or kindle - I've not used them, so don't know what they do.

Edit to add: Just tried downloading as both an e-pub and a kindle from the story list, and it downloads the whole story as a single file, but only what's posted of the story so far. Thus it's a simple one click action for them.

I have a premier account so someone without one with a basic account will need to say if the kindle and e-pub buttons are displayed for them.

Haven't seen any of the Premier protected stories turn up on the stolen lists. Maybe they use one of the options to download as an e-pub or kindle - I've not used them, so don't know what they do.

Only Premiere members have the ability to download stories in different formats, which is what Lazeez was referring to when he made his comment.

As for your premiere stories not being downloaded, he only seems to have targeted stroke (much sex) stories, as none of mine were targeted, so I'm assuming most of your stories were safe except for a few rare exceptions.

Then again, I had people use LinkedIn to steal my stories. After I posted a lot of decent advice, he figured I must have something worth stealing, visited my site and my goodreads, realized I listed a book I hadn't published, stole my ISBN and downloaded the 'free sample' chapters and published an incomplete book containing nothing but links to other 'stories'.

It just goes to show, copyright thieves will steal from anywhere! :

I have a premier account so someone without one with a basic account will need to say if the kindle and e-pub buttons are displayed for them.

Not usually. But those buttons are displayed to basic members when it's an out-of-copyright historic story Lazeez has added to SciFiStories.

AJ

Thank you.

I saw those buttons on SciFiStories and jumped to the wrong conclusion :(

AJ

That's a good idea.

I'm glacially working my way towards earned premier membership - I could get there today if I submitted some of my incomplete stories, but I think I have enough of those on SOL already :(

AJ

Its funny how being polite works so well with most people.

Someone should tell Trump (if you don't mind a Twitter Attack, that is). :

Someone should tell Trump (if you don't mind a Twitter Attack, that is). :

I don't use either Facebook or Twitter. I could never see how so many so-called smart people can not see the risks involved in that type of communication.

Well, at least that's one thing no one has ever accused Trump of being.

Go ahead and criticize me for that one, as I definitely deserve it.

one thing no one has ever accused Trump of being

I thought that "so called smart people" was a sarcastic reference to stupid people, which certainly seems to include Trump.

I thought that "so called smart people" was a sarcastic reference to stupid people, which certainly seems to include Trump.

Otherwise known as "people who consider themselves 'intelligent', mainly because they're too stupid to know any better".

(By the way, the surgeons in my 'Medical Advice' question fit into this category, even though they both have graduate degrees, high-paying jobs and are considered 'experts' in their fields.)

mainly because they're too stupid to know any better".

I thought that is what I said, but not as eloquently.

Having knowledge and being able to use it are two different things.

By the way, do you know what Vlad is talking about in his post? After all, the post's original purpose was to let us know about a new feature.

minor edits when it goes private. What does that mean, if he is talking about posts, the edited post is what is displayed and I doubt Lazeez looks at all the edited posts.

If rebranded stories refers to plagiarized stories, Lazeez has already said there is nothing he can do from his end to identify the thief.

By the way, do you know what Vlad is talking about in his post? After all, the post's original purpose was to let us know about a new feature.

minor edits when it goes private. What does that mean, if he is talking about posts, the edited post is what is displayed and I doubt Lazeez looks at all the edited posts.

I wasn't sure what he was getting at either. It might be 'reposting a story without sex scenes' so Lazeez can track which gets more downloads, though I doubt it refers to readers commenting on a story (since they're not "editable").

I wasn't sure what he was getting at either.

Hi CW. I received an email from a friend about Vlad's post. He suggested that I substitute Premier Member in place of Private. It took a while, but I think I now understand the post.

Vlad is suggesting making a story Member Only, making a few edits to create a different version, and then waiting until it is stolen to determine if the thief is a Free or Premier Member.

His idea is that Lazeez would then know who the Premier Member is, and an appropriate action could be taken.

It is a good idea and would probably work if Lazeez tracked who downloads the story. I suggested something similar. Evidently the site's software doesn't track who downloads stories, so neither of our ideas will work.

Understood. That is the point I was trying to make.

I'm glacially working my way towards earned premier membership - I could get there today if I submitted some of my incomplete stories, but I think I have enough of those on SOL already :(

Of course, you could always finish a few of them.

Seriously, Ross and I have been holding a 'master class' in writer's block, what produces it and how to resolve it.

Sci-fi Stories and FineStories are somewhat of demo sites for SOL currently. They have all the premier features available for free for now. Soon they will all require payment to get the premier services.

Hear that everyone? It's time to jump onto Sci-Fi and download all your favorite stories (those which are posted) onto your favorite devices and decide for yourselves whether the Premiere services are worth the extra cost.

If nothing else, it makes saving a story you're reading for a protracted airplane ride easier!

On another thread in this forum Lazeez stated less than 1% purchased the premier membership, therefore the other 99% earned the premier membership by posting stories on SOL.

I believe Lazeez was pointing out the majority of readers used the free access. And some people entitled to the free premier access also buy premier access.